


Another Go Around But As A Family This Time

by thegenericwriter



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Ben and Klaus are probably the main characters but barely since everyone else is v. important too, Brother-Sister Relationships, Brotherly Love, Family, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Team as Family, Teamwork, Time Travel, after season one?, everyone has their moment, no ships, they're 13 again, they're all still a little messed up from their childhood but they're trying, they're family, timeline redo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25728358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegenericwriter/pseuds/thegenericwriter
Summary: So they didn't quite stop the apocalypse but Five can just time-travel them somewhere back to fix it all.That's fine, they're back at the mansion and the world is still in one piece.What's not fine is that it's the day before Five left the first time, it's 2002, and they're all 13 again.This has it's benefits, in Ben, and it's drawbacks in... everything else. Their lives aren't theirs anymore, they're just Reginald Hargreeves abandoned, superpowered kids again but they're determined to do it better this time around. They spent over a decade split off, angry and apart. Not this time. They're a team now. They're a family.AU where at the end of s1 Five teleports them back in time and they have to try and relive their awful childhood so Reggie doesn't get suspicious while also trying to secretly help Vanya, support each other, learn to be a family and prevent the apocalypse through love and feelings. Also Ben is alive again.This has a large focus on Ben and Klaus' friendship but the others also get sizeable roles too. Luther and Allison are just friends because nah and Luther is not s1 Luther but s2 puppy-Luther instead because I prefer him that way.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Ben Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 67
Kudos: 382





	1. Seeing a Ghost

The thing about time travel is that it's really fucking disorienting. It used to get Five every time for the first few years of training. Even now when he uses too much power and gets tired it can make him feel queasy. 

So for everyone else, who had never time travelled before, bar Klaus who had accidentally ended up in the 60s, dealing with the confusion for days and spending hours in the tub the day he came back, this was a nightmare. 

Pounding headache, disorientation, nausea, dizziness - you name it. Your senses all went wazzoo. Even Five simply rolled over on the floor in the hallway of the mansion once they'd landed roughly on the ground and vomited up all the coffee, booze and occasional pancake he'd eaten earlier in the day. If travelling with one person had been bad the first hundred times, travelling with seven had been awful. 

"Ugh." Allison groaned where she lay, only a foot away from her brother and his reaction. She gripped her pounding head and sat upright. 

"I feel like I just got knocked out barefisted." Diego complained rolling onto his back and padded at his poor nose that had hit the floor first.

Vanya moaned and her eyes flickered open. Luther loosened his grip on her. Luckily he hadn't landed on top of her, instead his shoulder had taken the brunt of the hit and it was piercing up his whole body. 

"What the fuck." Vanya hissed out, looking wildly around. She caught the attention of the others who in turn gaped at her, at Luther, at each other, at themselves. "Oh no, no, no, no." Vanya shook her head turning her hands over and over. Her small, young hands. 

Five had finally gathered himself together enough to turn in response to his siblings ever growing noise. "Oh." He let his shaky arms give out under him and he rolled onto the floor, inches from the mess he'd made. "I guess my calculations weren't perfect yet." 

"Ow!" Suddenly the loud sixth voice joined the rest. "Jesus Christ Ben is that your bony elbow piercing my stomach or are you just happy to see me?" Klaus groaned in pain and shuffled around with a grunt. 

Diego was the first to respond to their brother. "Is Ben here t-" He trailed off. 

"I feel awful." Ben complained, pulling his arm off of Klaus who had been pulling himself upright. "Did you smack me on the head on the way down?"

Klaus shrugged, rolling his neck and shoulders as Ben pushed himself up rubbing his head. 

Neither noticed the silence coming from the others. Even Five had frozen for a second. Slowly pushing up onto his elbows to look over at the others. Allison was the first to break the silence with a loud gasp as he hands flew to her mouth and eyes welled up. Vanya's hands dropped in shock and Luther was staring, mouth open like a fish.

"B-B-Ben?" Diego forced out.

Ben groaned, "Yeah?" He poked at his forehead as if checking for a bruise. 

"Yeah, he's here too." Klaus waved them off. "Can't get rid of the guy." 

"Ben!" Allison cried out. 

"Ben." Vanya sputtered, climbing out of Luther's arms. 

"Ben…" Luther and Diego said together.

"This is an unexpected side-effect." Five managed to say.

Ben had frozen. He had noticed his hands. His short legs. His shorts. He had been looking at Klaus. So small, so thin, so young. It had been decades since they'd looked like this. 

"Ben." Five started, drawing Ben's attention. "Welcome back."

Ben gasped. He looked around at his gaping family. All looking where he was. No. All looking at him. 

Suddenly Allison was on him. Vanya was on him. They were both gripping him so tight. Warmth he hadn't felt since he was sixteen and his life went black, since he went cold, since he had died. His eyes were clenched closed. If this was a dream he didn't want to wake up. His sisters were holding onto him so tight he could barely breathe and feeling warm, he felt wet tears drip onto his shoulder. He felt like he was shaking. Or maybe he was numb. He couldn't tell. He hadn't had to tell for so long. He let his eyes open, to take in if it was real or not. He saw his sisters jubilantly clutching at him. His brothers still in shock. Diego tearing up, drifting closer, beginning to reach out, almost scared as if he didn't want to try to join in case Ben faded away. Five smirking fondly at him. And Klaus.

Klaus looked like he was seeing a ghost. Or well, a living human. 

"You're alive." Klaus said in a breath. 

Ben felt himself let out a wet laugh. "I guess so." Klaus reached his thin fingers out. Grazing his brother's cheek. "You're alive." He repeated.

Then with a thump he joined his sisters. Wrapping his lanky arms tightly around the three of them. Diego finally adding his own over his shoulders. "If I've died again." Klaus sobbed out, nestling his head further and further into Ben's neck. 

"No. Never. Not again." Ben promised. Grabbing at Klaus' arms over their sisters. "We're both alive again now."

And the joy and the warmth they all felt in that moment was immense. Hugging and looking on at their brother that had died so long ago, alive and breathing once again.

Eventually the others started shifting away. Slumping close to Ben, staring at each other and their lost brother. For a while they were absorbing the reality of what had happened. What they were. Who they were now. 13 again. Together again. One more shot and Ben was still here. And Klaus was still gripping on to him tightly and Ben was holding onto his brother as if he was scared once he let go he would fade away. 

Later they would have to deal with their lives. They would have to figure out what to do with themselves, with the world, the apocalypse and with their father. But for tonight, all seven sat in a circle on the floor of their hallway, holding on to each other while Klaus and Ben laughed over each other and the others couldn't help but join in.


	2. Apologising Is Pretty Tough For The Hargreeves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So originally this chapter didn't exist and I moved straight on into the suffering/bonding but I realised that while I assumed they talked it all out I never showed it so I spent a few days struggling to write this. It's not my favourite. I'm worried it's a little heavy handed but I didn't want to put it off for much longer.  
> Hopefully you enjoy it x

The day the seven arrived back in 2002 had been like a delirious dream. They were kids again, they were re-living their childhood, Reginald was in control of them again and Ben was back. The whole afternoon was wasted in trying to comprehend their brother was back, alive, in the flesh.

  
The next morning was when the reality of it all hit them.

  
They weren't thirteen, they had been thirty, they had grown up and apart and they had left a fracture for a decade between them. Even in the last week Five had returned from the abyss out of nowhere and moved on without realising the rift he had caused. Luther had threatened Klaus and tried to lock up Vanya, Vanya had sliced Allison's throat open and none of them had noticed when Klaus had been kidnapped and tortured for a whole day.  
If some families were dysfunctional then theirs was a train-wreck and the tracks had been eviscerated.

Breakfast had been a weird experience.  
They had seen their father. He had returned home later the night before after his weekly absence from the academy to see all seven of his children slumped on the floor of the hallway with Ben still grinning, staring at himself and Klaus still draped over his brother, Five and Vanya shuffled up to Ben's other side, as if referencing their childhood camaraderie while the others watched on with content looks.  
He had been so shocked to see his usually detached children willingly together and showing affection that it took him a solid five seconds to react. Yelling at them for causing a mess and breaking the rules and leaving their self-led training in favour of each other, threatening them with punishment if they didn't return to their training, no dinner and an early bed. To be fair, it could've been much worse. Perhaps they really did shake him.  
But now, the morning after their arrival, it was awkward. They had all set a hand on Ben as they filed to breakfast, just checking he was still corporeal, but by the time they had reached the table, under their father's gaze, stuck as helpless children again, they separated, stopped any talking and took their seats in silence.  
The air grew colder as they ate. None of them felt comfortable.

  
During training it seemed to get worse. At one point Luther fell and when Reginald yelled at him he caught eyes with Vanya and the two instantly froze, turning away. It was awkward, weird and uncomfortable for everyone.

The thing was they may be reliving their childhood but that didn't overwrite their past. No-one was sure where they stood or how to act. Were the others still mad? Did they hate them? Did they know the pain they'd caused? They needed to talk and for the Hargreeves talking was something that they just didn't do. Family meetings were usually one sided debates ending in someone storming out of the room angrily. But this was a waste.

Five paced around the library. He had managed to give everyone another chance to stop the apocalypse and all they had to do was not make all the same mistakes and have the same problems they had before and yet in barely twenty-four hours they had all already messed that up. Even Allison and Luther weren't acting normally. Klaus and Ben had been, ironically, the only ones who had voluntarily stood near each other the whole day despite being the ones who had been stuck with each other the whole time and should, if anything, be happy they could finally get some alone time.

  
Five frowned at the bookshelf. It didn't do anything in response but staring at the abundance of old, faded books let him focus his mind enough to decide. "Right." He turned back to the others, sat at their desks doing their individual studies Reginald had set for them. "We need to talk. We aren't children, we're adults and we have to act like it."  
Klaus raised his hand, "Actually, sir, we are children. Technically."

  
Five frowned at him.

  
"We aren't children Klaus," Allison turned to him, "we're stuck in our childhood bodies but…" she trailed off.  
Ben shuddered and Diego rolled his neck staring at the ceiling, "Yeah, there's some messed up implications there that I really don't want to think about."

  
Five brought his hand down onto his desk to bring their attention back to him. He didn't miss the way Klaus jumped and froze for a second before he loosened up again. "We can philosophise later, but what we need to do now is talk about how and why we caused the apocalypse and start trying to change it."

  
Vanya shrunk down in her chair and the others looked admonished, even just a little.  
"Are you a trained therapist now Five?" Diego asked sarcastically.

  
"Well, he's probably the closest thing we have to one." Allison spat back. "We can hardly all waltz downtown to a local office and start spilling about all our time travel messes."

  
"They wish." Ben hummed, "This family is a therapist's wet dream. I was dead for twelve years stuck in an incorporeal body attached to my brother who wasted away his life in favour of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to numb himself to the pain that our fathers' horrible training permanently scarred him with. Five disappeared for seventeen years without an explanation and came back with news about the apocalypse not seeming to care about the fact he missed out on a large part of all the shit we faced, Allison is terrified of her own powers because she was pushed to use it so much when she was young that she has trouble controlling herself because she can't stop asking when she starts and also suffers from the guilt that she was used to make Vanya feel like she was worth nothing to the point she suffered so badly she caused the apocalypse. Vanya is scared she'll cause the apocalypse again, she's scared of her own powers and she sliced Allison's throat open accidentally, nearly killing her, so that's probably scarred her for life. Luther locked Vanya up against her will in her childhood nightmare cage, blaming her for Allison and the apocalypse, not to mention him inadvertently causing Klaus' temporary death, Diego lost one of the only people he truly cared about, sorry by the way, and Klaus suffered in an active war zone for nearly a year and no-one noticed that he had been kidnapped and tortured for a whole day after the house was attacked."

The others stared at Ben in silence.

  
"What?" He asked, noticing them looking at him. "I had nothing much else to do as a ghost." He folded his arms, "Why, was that insensitive?" He looked at Five.

  
"Right. Well. That's all the topics of discussion laid out for us. Who wants to start?"

  
The others all awkwardly shuffled around. None looking too happy or willing to say anything.  
Klaus brushed his hair out of his face, "Well, in rehab when they made us do group therapy they always sat us in a circle like we were four again and made us go round in a circle like good little boys, girls and any others."

  
"Why don't you start?" Ben suggested, looking back at Five judgingly with a raised eyebrow.

  
Five clenched his jaw but saw slight interest in the others faces. He ran a hand over his face and sighed. "OK." And he could hear the frustration in his voice, "I accidentally got stuck in the future and couldn't get back. Sorry. There, are you happy Ben?"

"No actually."

  
Vanya shuffled in her seat, "Umm," she drew everyone's attention to her, "Well… if we're doing this… I was really angry when you left."

"Me too." Agreed Ben.

  
"Yeah." Allison and Klaus agreed at the same time.

  
Diego finally joined in, "It didn't seem fair that you just got out while we were still stuck here." He explained.

  
"I didn't just 'get out'! I was stuck, trapped, in a desolate wasteland for thirty years, having seen all of you dead and not knowing if I would ever be able to jump back to stop it all. How could you be angry with me?" He fought back.

  
"We know that now." Diego spat back at him. "But we thought, like any sane person, you got out and realised life was way better without us around and so you just never bothered coming back."

  
"I thought you were dead." Klaus admitted quietly, "Dad got really pushy after you left. He made me train even harder, he didn't think you'd made it." He crossed his arms as if he was hugging himself, "I thought so too and when you never responded to me… I thought you had decided I wasn't worth it."

  
Five's angry face loosened up a little bit.

  
"When we were younger," Vanya pitched in again, "you were the only one who ever really seemed to care about me. No," she responded when Allison turned around, "I was always the outcast. Everyone had someone else to talk to or something else to do and I was different and Five… you sometimes would just talk to me even though I was probably just a thing to spit ideas to, but… I was alone after you left. And I thought it was because you didn't care enough to come back to me."

  
Five sighed, completely deflating. He sat back down. He looked contemplative for a few seconds. "Clearly we've all hurt each other. I suffered a lot while I was gone but I didn't realise that you all had too and… I'm sorry." He said as if it made him uncomfortable. "But we're together again now and this won't ever be able to rewrite our shitty childhood but we can use this time to at least try."

  
The others all looked at each other awkwardly.

  
"I'm sorry." Luther spoke up, shocking everyone. He was shuffling awkwardly in his seat, looking much smaller than his super powered frame was, "I was horrible. Even this week alone I've been horrible. I yelled at everyone, I acted like I was better than everyone, I blamed everything on Vanya, I left Klaus to die in a club because I was high!" His voice had gotten progressively strained. He looked pained. "I'm so sorry. Vanya I shouldn't have locked you in that cellar. You're my sister and I know you were confused and angry and you didn't mean to cause you any pain. Allison has yelled at me enough about it. Klaus, I'm a horrible brother. I didn't even notice you in the club. I don't deserve forgiveness from any of you for behaving the way I did - like I was better than all of you, never mind you two," he looked at Klaus and Vanya who stared back with open mouths, "but, I'm sorry. And this time, even though you might never want to see me again, I'm going to try and be a good person and I want to be a good brother." His voice shook and his eyes were wet. Suddenly everyone realised they didn't think they'd ever seen Luther cry before.  
There was silence for a long second.

  
"I don't forgive you. Yet." Vanya said, but she set a hand on his arm, "But you're my brother and you made a mistake and honestly, I was terrified of myself, so I don't blame you for panicking, but we can try and work together to never do that again."

  
She and Luther shared an awkward smile.

  
"Samesies." Klaus pitched in but his genuine look showed the heart behind his words.

  
"Wait," Diego raised his hand a little, "When did Klaus die in a club?" He looked at the others with a creased brow and a look of concern.

Allison joined in, "When did you serve in an active war zone?"

  
"Yeah, wait. When were you kidnapped?" Vanya added.

  
Klaus shrugged, "I'm a man of many mysteries."

  
Ben hit his arm then fixed the others with a hard look, "Well after the house was attacked and the bad guys took our brother to a motel where they tortured him for a whole day and none of you even noticed," the others all looked adequately shocked and appalled.

  
"Hazel and Cha Cha. You time-travelled." Five pitched in, remembering the shell-shocked Klaus dragging himself around his room.

  
Klaus gave the peace sign, "All the way to 1967, Vietnam." He spoke socially but his face fell as he recalled it.  
"The bar." Diego said in response. Confusing the others but he nodded as if it made sense.

"I served ten months on the front line. I tried the suitcase a few times at the start but… there was this guy. 1968. There was a sharp shot and I had no reason to stay." His jaw was clenched and his eyes had glossed over a little. The others were silent for him. "And then I had to get Luther."

  
Luther closed his eyes in shame.

  
"Some girl had been hitting on him and her boyfriend didn't like that." Ben leant into his brother for comfort. Klaus sighed as if he was trying to breathe his issues out of his body. "Well." He slapped his hands together to shift the tone. "Let's just say God doesn't like me much and kicked me right on out of heaven and here I am."

  
The others processed his story.

  
"How the fuck did we not notice you were gone?" Diego growled angrily.

  
Luther shook his head quickly, body tense, as if it hurt to think of.

  
"I'm a horrible sister." Allison welled up.

  
"We're all horrible." Vanya agreed.

  
Five took a good look at Klaus. Obviously, they didn't look the same, but thinking about it all did make him feel ashamed. "I'm sorry I brushed you off about it all." He caught Klaus' eyes and made sure his shame got across.

  
"We're all sorry Klaus." Diego apologised.

  
The others joined in.

  
Klaus looked at them shocked. "Oh." He blinked a few times as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing was real. "Um. Ok. Thanks."

  
"OK let's just face it and agree." Five spoke up, pulling everyone's attention back to him. "We're all assholes." It was blunt, but no one could find it in themselves to disagree. "We've all done some pretty awful stuff and we've all hurt other people in this family - even if we didn't mean to. Even if we didn't know." He looked around and Allison nodded back. "We all need to apologise and we all need to learn from it. We can't make these mistakes again. We need to be there for each other this time."

  
The others nodded.

  
"As the second oldest I completely agree."

  
"Excuse me?" Diego questioned, looking at Klaus in horror.

  
Klaus shrugged, "Ten months in the sixties mean I'm ten months older Diego."

  
"That's just basic maths." Ben teased, "Five you might need to grab some of the toddler books for Diego here."  
Diego reached across his table to hit his brother on the leg.

  
"Ow!" Ben kicked him back. "Did you see that?" He asked Vanya.

  
Vanya's serious face cracked and she let out a little giggle. "You act like five year olds."

  
"They may as well be." Five rolled his eyes.

  
Luther looked over at Allison who was watching with pursed lips at the two play fight over the tables, knocking the others in their excitement, as Vanya giggled, Five watched unsympathetically and Klaus cheered on from his seat and tried to get between the two, "Maybe we should stop." He advised them but neither picked up on the tone.

  
"You cant get mad for being the baby of the family." Ben teased, sticking out his tongue.

  
Diego made a face back, "We were all born at the same second. Time travel shouldn't count."

  
"Ah but it does." Klaus added in over their ruckus.

  
"Guys." Luther tried to appease the two again.

  
Diego knocked Allison's table into her and she snapped. "Diego! Ben!" The stopped immediately at her icy tone. "If you two don't stop acting like babies right now then I'm sure we can arrange something for you. Say, how do you feel about twelve years in the past? Why am I the only adult here?" She sighed.

  
Five, behind her, looked insulted.

  
She held up a hand to him before he could speak. "Caffeine addiction isn't a personality trait Five. Come back to me when you know how to do taxes and raise a child-" she cut herself off as horror dawned on her. "What about Claire?"

  
Five looked down.

  
The others stopped.

  
Allison's face shifted as she took in Five's silence. Her eyes teared up and she looked down to the floor, shaking her head. "I have to go." She made for the door. But before she got there someone stopped her.  
Arms encircled her from behind and she froze. They set their head on her shoulder and she heard a loud sob come from her throat.

  
"No more crying alone." Vanya whispered in her ear.

  
Allison shook and felt herself fall into her sister's arms. More came from her side and another encircling that person and herself. Klaus and Ben.

  
"We've lost people that we can't ever replace." Diego told her, taking her empty right side, "but we have each other to help get through it now."

  
"We love you." Luther agreed, joining the group, holding the outside circle.

  
Five looked on blankly for a moment. Then he set his hand on hers and smiled and she broke.

By the time the were called for dinner they all had red rimmed eyes but Reginald only watched suspiciously as they ate. When they went to upstairs they moved in silence, still thinking about the day until Allison stopped outside her door.  
She looked back at the others, parting ways and simply said, "Thank you."  
And they really did feel like a family for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before you attack me - I'm not saying Five did something awful and therefore had to apologise. He got stuck in the future and spent ages trying to just get back to his family - that's a character I can get behind. But I was using him as an example of how every character unknowingly hurt/affected another one, or didn't realise they accidentally hurt someone, except Luther who actually straight up hurt some of his family members so I made sure he apologised too so we can move on to him being cute.  
> Well, let me know and thanks so much to everyone who left kudos and reviews, it really did encourage me a lot. x


	3. Training Is Tough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The guys briefly discuss some of Reginald's messed up training tactics in this one so here's a quick warning for that.

“Right. Let’s try that again but less awful.” 

Vanya sighed and clenched her fist and jaw. 

“Come on Vanya.” Five said, watching her from the other side of the room with an unimpressed look. “Shatter this glass.” He tapped it with a knife and it started ringing.

Vanya took a second to gather herself, raised her hand towards the glass and tried to focus all of the vibrations and sounds she could hear towards it. It shook a little in Five’s hands.

“Woo! Go Vanya!” Klaus called in encouragement from his pillow on the floor at the side of the attic. 

Vanya shut her eyes tight and focused harder, hearing the ting of the glass echo and feeling it absorb her senses. Her hand shook.

“Come on.” Five instructed.

The ring grew louder. It was all she could hear. She felt her teeth grit together and it felt like all of her energy was pulling out of her body towards her fingertips. 

“Go on.” Klaus encouraged.

Vanya thought of the glass shatter and pushed her energy further. She felt a push and she forced it out to the glass.

The glass shattered, the windows shattered, the wood creaked and the furniture blew away in a huge explosion. And suddenly it wasn’t and she was focusing on the push, trying to shatter the glass again.

“Stop.” Five said. Setting the glass down and Vanya fell to her knees, gasping for breath, sweaty and exhausted. 

“Did I-?”

“Explode the whole room again?” Five asked. “Yes.”

Vanya closed her eyes in defeat and slumped to the floor. 

“Thank god we have a time-traveller who can just go back a few seconds every time you accidentally destroy the house at least.” Klaus shrugged as he shuffled closer to Vanya. 

She whimpered a bit and Five gave him an unimpressed look. “Maybe not the most encouraging thing to say.” He told his brother as he squatted down and rubbed Vanya on the back as she gasped for air. “We’ll stop for today.”

“No.” Vanya gasped out.

“Van… You look half dead. I should know.” Klaus told her as he pulled her long hair out of her face and tied it up with a string. “You’ve used too much energy. It gets you real quick.” He patted her cheek. 

Vanya groaned.

Five patted her gently. “I actually agree with Klaus, for once.”

Klaus looked at Five with a shocked look. “Man, I wish I still had my phone to record this.” Then he leant down to whisper to Vanya, “You’re the witness to this for when I brag about it later.” 

She laughed and let out a deep breath, rolling over onto her back as she finally caught her breath again. She lay on the floor weakly and stared at the ceiling. “I feel awful.” She complained.

"You always do at the start." Klaus told her as he turned over and flopped down beside her on the floor. "When dad used to push me too hard I was so out of it."

"I remember." Vanya whispered.

"Powers suck."

Five tilted his head at Klaus, "Didn't yours mean you were able to keep our brother around for fifteen years?" 

"Ugh." Klaus let his cheek fall against the floor as if his whole body just lost all tension. "Fine. You win. They suck less sometimes."

Five rolled his eyes but pushed himself down the floor a bit so he could lounge beside them. "It'll be tough while we get the basics down." He told Vanya, "You spent years suppressing your powers and they were always quite uncontrollable. It's natural you'd struggle to start." 

Vanya sighed, "I guess."

"Hey just think about this," Klaus nudged her, "Once you've got this down you'll probably be the most powerful one out of all of us." Five glared but Klaus ignored him, "And I can finally take my rightful, god given place as the least helpful sibling in a fight."

"Hey," Vanya nudged him back, "You were always the least helpful in a fight." She joked. 

Klaus snorted. "True. Dave had to give me special training when I arrived in Vietnam."

"Ugh gross." Vanya's nose wrinkled up.

"I really don't want to hear about your 'special training' Klaus." Five told him with a disgusted tone.

"As much as I would totally not care and tell you anyway I mean it literally. It's how we bonded. 10 mile runs, weight lifting and cardio. I can't believe I fell in love with a jock." He laughed but it had a sad reflection to it. "I guess in this timeline he'd never know me." He stared at the ceiling for a second, the others watching him. He turned to his brother, "Five, could you-?"

"No... Sorry."

"Yeah. Mess the timeline up too much probably."

He turned his face away.

"Love sucks." Vanya exhaled as she stretched her arms out above her head. 

Klaus chuckled wetly, "Well between your psycho ex and my lost love I think you got out worse." 

"True. At least Dave didn't try to kill us." 

"Dolores liked you all."

Vanya smiled.

"I can't believe the one with the best relationship in this room was Five." Klaus laughed and Vanya joined in. 

The three lay there for a few minutes until they heard a muffled creak from the staircase. They sat up, ready for a fight, just in case. 

"Hey," came a hiss outside the door. It was Luther. Five stood and unlocked the door. Luther, Diego and Ben snuck through and joined the others on the floor. Five locking the door behind them and sitting back down.

"How was combat training?" Vanya asked. The three looked worn out and a little roughed up but steadier than Vanya, still pale. Diego sighed, "I forgot how exhausting it was. I thought I kept in good shape but my work out sessions were nowhere near as bad as Dads. At least this body has enough muscle memory to keep up, mostly." 

"Allison?" Klaus asked Ben.

"Personal training." He replied with emphasis. "I had my hopes up these last few days but I guess he didn't magically forget about that in this timeline after all." He lay down at Klaus' feet.

"So that means-"

"Yeah."

"Oh." Klaus looked down, his hands clenching.

"I hated personal training." Luther joined in, not quite reading the heavy mood between his brothers. "He always made me run laps and lift weights till my fingers and feet bled." 

"Try catching and holding increasingly sharp and small projectiles thrown right at your face for hours. More than once mom had to patch me up from that bastard's idea of training." Diego spat bitterly, fingers glancing over some thin scars on his arm.

Ben looked over at his brother, "Klaus?"

Klaus looked back with terrified eyes. He shook his head. 

"Yeah you would disappear for days sometimes." Diego remembered, then his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "but Dad was always with us…" He looked at the others who all shrugged back.

"Yeah well. Dad had a very 'hands off' approach for me." 

"Lucky." Luther innocently said, wistfully.

"No!" Ben yelled back, then quickly remembered they were trying not to draw attention upstairs. "Dad made me release my monsters for hours and I still got off lucky. Klaus was tortured." He looked sick talking about it.

Klaus avoided the other's eyes. Even Vanya pushed herself up to look at him. 

"What the hell did dad do to you?" Five asked furiously.

Klaus swallowed. "Well, I was scared of ghosts. They freaked me out." He explained shakily, "So, he would take me…" he trailed off, having flashes of memories that made him clench his eyes shut. "He would put me in the mausoleum… for days sometimes. And- and the ghosts were angry… and they would-" He clenched his eyes harder and folded up gesturing scratches. He couldn't continue.

The others digested his story.

"I'll never forgive him." Ben said coldly. "For anything he did, to any of us."

"Klaus." Vanya whispered, remembering her prison. She reached out and set her hand on his. He shook for a second but slowly flipped his over to hold hers. They shared a shaky, uncertain smile. 

"So," Luther spoke, "what are we going to do about it?" 

"What do you mean?" Diego asked.

Luther looked at Klaus and Vanya, at Ben, Diego's scars and an angry, contemplative Five. "We're not supposed to change the timeline too much. Do we just let him keep doing this to us?" 

The others looked to Five.

He was still thinking, but his resolve crumbled and he shook his head, "I'm sorry. We can't let him know."

They knew that but they all still felt their breaths leave them when they heard it.

"But-" Ben started to argue.

"No." Klaus stopped him. "If he treats us like this now, imagine how bad it would get if he knew we came from the future."

"But still-" Vanya tried.

"It's safer for everyone, and especially for Five this way. I'll be fine." He assured them but they could tell his confidence was fake. "We can't let him hurt any of us, but we have seventeen years of experience." 

"We just need to get through five more years." Luther followed up sadly. 

"If he hurts you. Any of you." Diego's threat trailed off without a conclusion but his lip was shaking.

"We won't let him." Luther assured him. They shared a nod.

"So we try and follow the timeline," Diego summarised, "But if things get out of hand, we tell each other." He looked at each of his siblings individually.

They all nodded.

"Wow it's so weird having a team." Vanya said.

"Team Hargreeves messed up kids." Klaus agreed. "We could get T-shirts." He tried joking. 

Ben smiled, "You'd crop yours probably."

"Hey, my fashion sense didn't just abandon me in the jump, of course I would." 

The others chuckled.   
The bell for dinner rang.   
They grew quiet.

"Well." Ben said with a sigh. "Guess that's it till next week then. Oh. Vanya. How did it-" Klaus and Five sneakily tried to shake their heads as they helped Vanya up onto shaky feet. "Oh. Well, next time I'm sure."

Vanya sighed, "Maybe." 

"I believe you can do it." Luther told her as they made their way to the door. 

"Thanks."

But as they walked down the stairs their talking ceased and they filed into a line. 

They couldn't let Reginald suspect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed.  
> It's a bit of a bittersweet ending I know but I mean that's pretty decent given the situation ATM.   
> Hoping to post another chapter soon


	4. Stand up and see the effect

Getting used to being thirteen again wasn't as fun as it seemed in the movies. 

It wasn't a barrel of laughs, it wasn't reliving your best years, it wasn't easy or fun. It sucked. Everyone had to go through puberty again and everyone was a kid again, short, angry and powerless. 

They couldn't just go for a drive, they couldn't just leave, they didn't have their own lives. They all lived under the Umbrella Academy roof, they all relied on mom for their meals and every single day they had to face their dad, who even this time round, seemed even less impressed and pleased with them. 

"You're all slipping too far behind." Reginald hissed, clicking his timer with great fury. "Number one, your time has slipped. Number two, your athleticism is appalling. Number three, even worse than number one. Number four, as expected, last place. Number five, the only one who used their powers correctly for an advantage and number six… you should be focusing on improving your athleticism or else if your powers should fail you would have nothing else to save you."

The group, out of breath and out of practice slumping on the wall at the top of the staircase just like they had so many times throughout their childhood, their first childhood, froze. 

Ben slowly looked up at their father staring coldly back at them. There was the briefest of seconds where he wondered if their father knew. After all, they had arrived back one week ago and he had stormed into the house on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, having been gone for his weekly three hour absence, to find all seven of his children sat on the floor together, some still teary, all talking over each other, deliciously happy and confused. Things had gotten quieter since the first day but their little therapy session in the library had helped a little. They were still figuring out how to act but around Reginald they were still stiff and awkward. But Reginald was a smart, attentive man. He could notice if they sat too close or if they smiled at each other. 

But he couldn't know. 

In this timeline Five had never jumped so Reginald wouldn't know he could manage time-travel yet, especially not with six other people clinging to him. Perhaps he just thought they were acting rebellious. They were teenagers after all.

Ben watched Reginald. Their dad's eyes narrowed. It was a stare-off, or at least it felt like one to Ben.

"He'll have us." 

Reginald couldn't even hold back his shock fast enough. 

Klaus, still clutching his side as if he was struggling to breathe, it had only been a second. He was determinedly meeting their father's gaze. That was new. Klaus would sometimes fight back but when he was young he sometimes couldn't bring himself to look their father in the eye. 

"Isn't that what you wanted, old man?" Klaus joked smugly at his face. 

"Number four-" Reginald started, taking one step towards the group. Klaus stiffened and everyone reacted. 

"He's right." Allison agreed, taking a step as if to hide her brother, "We're a team."

"We look after each other." Luther nodded with his puppy dog face on.

"P-protect each other." Diego placed a hand on both Ben and Klaus' shoulders, in a very clear message of protection.

Five sighed in shame at their acting out of character, but seeing his father's furious gaze he also stepped in. "No man left behind." and it sounded sarcastic, but the thing was, after literally trying to stop the apocalypse to stay with his family they all knew that was how his genuity sounded.

Even Vanya, who had returned to her shy, silent self around their father stepped away from his side with her clipboard to stand beside her siblings in defiance.

Klaus, behind his siblings, relaxed a little. He let out a breathy, disbelieving laugh. "Whoop de do, we've learnt the true value of teamwork and it wasn't you that taught us it. How ironic."

Reginald clenched his jaw, and his hand seemed to clench around his timer so hard his knuckles turned white but he did not yell, he did not act out. Instead he let out a cold, "If you are such close teammates now then I hope you are prepared for more intense group training." And none of them liked the way he said it. "Back to your rooms. Now. No loitering and punishments for anyone outside of their own room. Don't come out before dinner." The group shared a hesitant look, they'd only been training for an hour. "Now!" Reginald yelled suddenly. They stumbled out of the old staircase and headed back to the main wing of the house towards their rooms, leaving Reginald behind. 

Once they had made it past the heavy door that led to the training building Klaus couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. He leant on Ben for support who held his taller, lanky brother up trying, unsuccessfully, to not start giggling too. 

Then Vanya snorted and the rest fell in line. Even Five let out a smirk and Luther, who had always admired their dad smiled.

"Didn't know you had it in you." Diego patted Klaus on the back proudly. "His face." 

"Stick it to the man." Vanya agreed quietly with a few small giggles as she spoke.

"I'm going to have to explain what 'not acting out of character in the timeline' means again but I can make an exception just this once after seeing dad's face." Five snorted.

Luther made his blank thinking face, "but shouldn't he be happy we're working together?" He asked curiously. "Are we doing something wrong?" 

"No." Allison answered immediately, Luther nodded at her firm tone.

Five shrugged, "He wants us to work together as a team, not as a family. He's scared." 

Vanya stopped, they all followed suit, almost at their hallway now. "You're right. He always tried to keep us apart except for training. He encouraged us all to pair off or train. That way we couldn't bond. We would work as a team like we were trained to do but when it came to home we would always be split off, never help each other or stand up for each other, that's why he was always more powerful than six superheroes."

"Seven." Ben corrected pointing at her nose fondly. 

Allison wrapped her arm over her sister. "Well he's got a big storm coming then. We spent a decade apart, longer, we're not doing that again." She put a hand in front of her and the others. "Family?" 

The others looked around at each other. All trying to read each other's expressions. 

Ben set his hand on hers. Klaus lazily following with a roll of his eyes but a fond smile as well. Vanya shyly set hers down, double checking with Allison who just smiled at her. Diego sighed but set his hand in, Luther looked a little unsure but with a quick jab from Allison's elbow he set his on top and they all looked at Five. 

Five rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You're acting like children." But he did untuck a hand and set it on the top of the pile. "Family."

"This is such a beautiful moment, it's like I'm having a trip all over again." Klaus said exaggeratedly, using his free hand to reach out to Ben, poking him in his pudgy cheek, "I'm not high am I?"

Ben slapped his hand away and laughed, "I hope not. I'm not dealing with that one today." 

There was the sound of a heavy door down the stairs closing and Allison sighed, "Well… I guess we have to-" she pointed back to her room. 

They reluctantly began separating down the hallway towards their rooms but Vanya stopped, looking at her brothers who had yet to split off. "Ben?" She asked, pointing at his door down the hall.

Ben just looked back, "What?"

"Your room?" 

Ben leaned back to look at his door. "Yeah?"

The others looked at each other. 

"Dad told us we had to go to our own rooms. Punishments are involved." Luther told him, as if Ben hadn't been there when their father had yelled at them.

Ben simply smirked, "When was the last time dad actually cared enough to check our rooms during the day. He only cares about spying on us at night. To monitor his little science experiments. I'm not about to sit staring at my wall for five hours." 

"Jeez, who are you and what did you do with little Ben?" Allison joked. Looking at the brother who had always been silent, obedient and shy, being the first one to break the rules. 

Five raised an eyebrow, "I guess twelve years stuck with Klaus was a bad influence after all."

Klaus faux gasped. "I will have you know that I am the victim here. Benny has just invited himself to my room, very straightforward of him might I add, while I am simply obeying orders."

Ben nudged him.

"See! If anything Ben is a bad influence on me." He protested. "Diego, you would watch your ten-month older brother suffer like this?" 

Diego simply snorted. "If ten months time travelling makes you my older brother then you can sort your own issues out." But he looked fond.

Klaus held his heart as if he had been betrayed. "Wow, I guess family means nothing to you all after all, has this last week meant _nothing_ to you?" 

"Come on Klaus." Ben rolled his eyes pushing at his taller brother to force him into the room. "Stop being such a drama queen."

"At least I am a queen." Klaus shot back.

"Good one." Ben replied sarcastically. They looked back at their siblings still standing awkwardly in the hall. 

"Well?" Ben said.

"Well what?" Vanya asked, watching the two interact. It was still confusing for her to get used to.

"Well," Ben began, "aren't you coming in?"

They all did.

Screw their stupid punishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was actually one of the first chapters I wrote and this was a very different idea back then so i feel it's a little out of place, I reworked it a little but I feel like it's not my finest work but hopefully you still enjoyed it and the next chapter... well, we'll see. This is part 1.  
> Thanks for reading :)


	5. Family Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy, sooo it's been a few days more than I expected but I was hoping to keep a few chapters ahead as I published but then I apparently just stopped being able to write so I'm stuck on what I hope to be the next chapter, I have others written but the next one... it just went no. So I figured I don't want to make you wait any longer for my subpar writing so I really hope you enjoy and I hope that I can actually get the next chapter written at some point, I'll publish for sure.  
> I enjoy this fic so wish me luck :)

Dinner was a silent affair. 

It always was. 

Their father demanded quiet as they absorbed whatever educational tape he had deemed necessary for that day. Even now, on the second go around it was simply the knocks of cutlery and the electronic hum of the tape player in the corner that filled the air. 

The seven had agreed on the day they'd arrived ten days ago to try not to pull too much attention to themselves in case Reginald caught on and they changed the timeline again. When he wasn't around they could act more comfortably. They arranged twice a week, when father would be preoccupied with his studies or training a select group of the others, to have Five and another free sibling sneak away and help train Vanya; in hopes that with their shared input the six could somehow help her hone her powers enough for her to grasp some control on them before she accidentally destroyed the whole world. 

This also provided nice bonding time. Something they had all, with varying degrees of reluctance, admitted was important given the whole 'our dysfunctional family relationship, or lack thereof, caused Vanya to cause the apocalypse' thing. 

So far it had been going ok. Reginald hadn't seemed to catch on. At least, not too much. Obviously they had slipped up a little. The first day, the day before last at training, three days before he had caught Five helping Vanya to create an easy formula to track her training outcomes, and Diego and Luther actually working together to fix the kitchen sink when their mom had accidentally broken the sprayer. Things like that weren't commonplace before, which for him was only ten days ago. Perhaps their 'not quite as subtle as they'd hoped' bonding was drawing a bit _too_ much attention. 

That's why, the night before as promised, Five had popped into each of their rooms to call a family meeting in the attic away from prying eyes and ears to explain 'not acting out of character' and discuss a plan of action to throw Reginald off their scent. 

"We just need to act more like we used to around him. Less chatting." He looked at Allison, "less hanging out," He looked at Luther and Diego who had surprisingly spent time together yesterday, voluntarily, boxing, "and less joking around and rebelling." He looked pointedly at Klaus and Ben who grinned back. "Dad will start noticing if his quiet little Ben keeps rolling his eyes and high-fiving his little junkie." 

"Hey," Klaus objected, "I'm not a junkie yet. I only smoke a few blunts a week in this timeline so far. I haven't hit the hard stuff yet." 

"And you're not going to." Allison, Diego and Ben all said at once.

Five clapped his hands together, "Great, we'll add that to the list of family activities. 'Keep Klaus sober'. Write that down." 

And bless his heart, Luther actually did on the dry erase board on the wall.

"What about Vanya?" Klaus asked, pointing at their sister who narrowed her eyes back. 

"I don't break any of dad's rules. I can keep a low profile."

Klaus laughed, "Sure Miss Apocalypse, we all know it's just because you're Five's favourite." But she allowed him to set his arm around her and drape his lanky body practically on top of her small shoulders so they all knew she wasn't genuinely angry. 

"That's not true." She tried to brush it off. But Five didn't speak up against it. 

She looked at him and he just shrugged. "My options are pretty limited." But he didn't say no and it was still probably the nicest thing he'd said out loud to her before. 

"Allison and Luther are each others favourites." Klaus pointed out. 

Allison nudged her brother. "Heart of a puppy this one has, someone has to look after him." She shrugged. "Plus, it's not like we haven't noticed the bizarre reality that you two are attached at the hip nowadays." She pointed at Klaus and Ben who were both now draped over Vanya teasingly, Ben poking at Five who was not very subtly trying to hold back his annoyance. 

"Fifteen years with no-one else to talk to will do that to you." Ben shrugged.

"It's Stockholm syndrome." Klaus explained seriously. "Ben's the beast and I'm the beauty, obviously," Ben kicked him and Klaus pointed dramatically at him like a child, "See! And I dealt with that attitude for thirteen years. I'm suffering Alli." 

Diego cleared his throat. The six looked over at him, sitting beside Allison on a dusty pillow. 

"Aww Diego, you'll always be my favourite valet- I mean, baby brother." 

Diego glared at him, "ten months." He gritted out. 

"Yeah Diego, you're the only one I trust to drive me places." Ben agreed.

"Am I just a car to you people?" He asked.

"No." Vanya assured him. 

"You don't have a car anymore." Ben explained. Then grinned. The others laughed.

Diego crossed his arms childishly, pouting. 

"Hey we all love you bro." Klaus assured him, patting him on the leg. Allison joined in with a soft smile. "But you're mom's favourite so you're off dibs. The rest of us just have to make do with each other."

The meeting had been entirely derailed by that point. It took a few more minutes of assurances Diego wasn't the 'disliked' sibling and Five had never managed to bring the conversation back around to the new ground rules of acting more like their old childhood selves around dad but the message should have more or less gotten through he thought.

It seemed that way as they ate dinner. Even just last night Klaus had been tossing bits of sweetcorn at Vanya all night making her giggle quietly and Diego and Luther had started kicking each other under the table while Allison glared them down. Tonight everyone was subdued. Back to occupying themselves as they ate like they had used to. 

This was better. Much more subtle. Their dad would never notice a change if they kept this act up.

Reginald cleared his throat as he dabbed his mouth with a napkin, having finished his meal. "Number four." He started. Shocking everyone out of their self-absorbed haze. "I have been thinking about your outburst in training on Wednesday." He explained. 

Klaus simply stared at him, eyes wide. He appeared to have frozen. That was another thing that sucked about being a kid again. He wanted to act out and talk back like he had as a thirty year old, but stuck as his thirteen year old self, he was reminded how little power he had over Reginald, the fear was pounding when he thought about it. 

"You claimed that should number six happen to be in danger he would have you all. Yet out of everyone at the table you are the weakest and most unstable with your abilities."

Guess he wasn't including Vanya, Klaus thought. 

"I-" He wasn't sure what he wanted to say but their father cut him off anyway before he could. 

"So if you are so convinced that you could help save the others in mortal danger then you must be willing to increase the difficulty of your own  _ personal  _ training." His eyes were dark.

Klaus' grip tightened on his fork. His hands were shaking. "N-no. Please."

"Tonight you shall experience my new training for you. It will be even tougher than before but if you are so determined to prove yourself to me then I'm sure it won't be anything you can't handle." And it sounded like a threat.

Klaus could feel his breaths coming quickly. His heart rate pacing. It felt like the world was darkening. "No." His voice was shaky. "Please." He begged. He remembered the mausoleum, the moans, the screams, the clawing, the dark. He had thought he had finally left that behind when he had grown up, he still had nightmares, he still remembered it vividly, the drugs barely helped some days. It was worse at night. But he was thirteen again now. He still had five years left before he could get away from it. He couldn't go back. He would die if he went back. He felt like he was dying now, his heart clenching and his forehead sweating. 

When they had been children his siblings hadn't noticed when he reacted to the words 'personal training'. They hadn't had a reason to. It was different for everyone and no one knew what he was doing through. Maybe they didn't even care. This time they tensed up. Klaus couldn't do it again. 

"I don't think so." 

"Excuse me. Number six?"

Ben had stood from his seat threateningly, as if a short thirteen year old cast an intimidating figure in the eyes of Reginald Hargreeves. "I don't think so. _Dad_." He repeated.

Five face palmed at his end of the table.

Reginald recovered from his shock pretty quickly to be fair to him. "Number four and his training are not your business. I am training him to be an adequate hero. You have no say in the matter. Now sit down before I have to punish you too."

Ben scoffed obnoxiously. 

"Number six." Reginald said threateningly.

Klaus set a shaky hand on his brother's arm. Ben clenched his jaw and sat down. The others let out a relieved breath. Reginald picked up his glass to have a sip.

"Actually." Ben stood again with a clang as he knocked his chair over. "I _do_ have something to say. Klaus isn't going to your little personal training sessions anymore. Neither am I. Neither is Diego. Neither is Luther, Allison or Five. We aren't experiments for you to play with, we're human beings. You can't just torture us 'for the sake of science' and assume we'll sit by and do nothing because what you're doing is wrong, and it's abuse. Klaus is terrified of the dark because of you. He's scared of ghosts and the yelling and the scratching and needs to get high to get rid of the pain because of you. Most of Diego's scars came from your stupid personal training sessions not the life-threatening missions you sent us on. Everyone here has suffered because of you and I'm not allowing it anymore. Sure. I'll run up and down the stairs for you. I'll practice against dummies for you. I'll go on missions and risk my life for you because this city is dangerous and needs people to save it sometimes and we're legally obligated to for you but I am not suffering for your little notebook anymore and neither is any one of us any more." By now he was at Reginald's chair. His hand was gripping the high back and he was staring at his father right in the eye, unflinching.

Reginald narrowed his eyes back. "What is the meaning of this? You're standing up against me? Saying I torture you when I'm trying to understand and develop your powers. When I took you all in and raised you in my home?" He spat back, standing himself. A solid two feet on Ben.

Ben stepped back automatically. 

Reginald clearly noticed. "A scared child talking back to his father. Backing away at the first sign of opposition." He commented. "You are weak." He told Ben. "You are all weak. That is why I push so hard to train you. Because without me your powers would destroy you all. I am furthering scientific study and you are all concerned about your  _ feelings! _ " He spat across the table, staring at each of his children individually. All avoiding his gaze. Even Five was staring right at the table instead of back. Finally he looked at Klaus. "Number four. You are a constant disappointment to me. First you waste away your body on those silly drugs at age thirteen, then you cannot grasp onto your powers, you are constantly last in training, you fail at the simplest of tasks and now you have corrupted the mind of number six in the matter of two weeks. I should have separated you from the others long ago." Klaus flinched.

He took a step towards Ben, and by extent Klaus, raising his hand in anger, and they all knew what was coming.

"Stop." Five was suddenly at their side, gripping their father's hand fiercely, using all his strength to force it back in a painful twist in the air.

"Number Five!" Their father sounded appalled.

Luther and Diego appeared. They both grabbed one of their fathers arms and forced him back to his chair, pushing him into it. "Sit down." Diego ordered. And he didn't stutter once. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Reginald ordered. Looking around at his sons all standing before him. "Pogo!" He called. But he only got one syllable out before Vanya forced his napkin to his mouth. 

"Sorry dad." She apologised, but she didn't sound all that genuine. "But that's my brother you're talking about. He's messed up, but that's because you made him that way."

"Allison." Five ordered, looking at her and then their father. "While this was a beautiful family moment for the scrapbook he definitely knows there's something off now. You need to get rid of it." 

"I-I can't." She said, slowly approaching their father; held down, sputtering and red faced.

"You have to." Five told her. "As much as I want him to know how much of an asshole he is," he looked deliberately at Reginald at the name-calling, "he'll only use this against us. You saw what he was about to do to Ben for speaking out, to Klaus for just existing. You weren't there when we talked about what he does to us. How he tortures Klaus. He can do so much worse and he will if we let him go." 

Allison looked at her siblings, all struggling against their father. She looked at Ben, shell shocked, and Klaus, still shaking. She hated using her power nowadays. But Five was right. Her family and their safety came first now. 

"I heard a rumour," the words slipped out like a breath as she clenched her eyes shut. Reginald's eyes glazed over. "That you thought we had a normal, quiet dinner and forgot this whole fight." Reginald loosened under her brother's grip.

"Good." Five praised her. 

She felt her heart pound and she felt sick. But she saw Klaus out of the corner of her eye again. Her jaw clenched. "I heard a rumour-"

"What are you doing?" Luther asked, looking at her with wide eyes. 

"Allison." Five warned.

"I heard a rumour," she pushed on, "that you don't remember what Ben said to you tonight, but you feel the sentiment in your heart and that you forget about his 'personal training session' you had planned."

Reginald dazedly nodded in his seat.

"I heard a rumour," she gritted out, ignoring Vanya's call to stop, or Five teleporting beside her to try and pull her away, or Ben's confused gaze, "that you stop telling Klaus he's a disappointment when he does something you don't like. I heard a rumour that you stopped hitting us if you get angry, I heard a rumour-" The words had been slipping out with a harder and harder tone. Five clasped a hand over her mouth, practically jumping on her back in the process. She was sweaty and out of breath in the tension. Her knees felt weak. But she had barely scratched the surface of what she had wanted to do. That was why she hated her power. It was too easy to get carried away. But for now, the immediate danger was gone. She collapsed to her knees bringing Five with her, hand still over her mouth. 

"Allison." Vanya breathed out, pulling away from the dazed Reginald to sit with her. 

"Allison. Are you ok?" Ben grabbed her clammy hand in his, appearing beside her. Klaus, pale and sweaty too, but shocked out of his panic attack, joined him with a tired smile.

"Thank you." He managed to say.

Allison felt herself nod dazedly.

Luther slowly let go of their dad and took a cautious step away. "I don't want to rush you," he said genuinely, "but I think he's coming around." 

"What should we do?" Vanya asked.

"Run?" Ben asked Five.

"No." Five shook his head. "That's suspicious. He'll know we did something then. We have to go back to normal." 

None were too thrilled with the idea of sitting back down and acting as if nothing had happened and as if they weren't terrified of their father's wrath. But they nodded at Five's plan and quickly made their way back to their seats. Ben and Diego shuffling Klaus back and Five teleporting Allison back down to the end where she sat. 

Finally Reginald came to. He shook his head, feeling at it hesitantly. He looked around at his children but they were all simply sat quietly, listening to the Russian CD set, finishing their food and ignoring each other entirely. He didn't see Five's clenched fist, fearful that things were about to go downhill real fast, or Allison's numb fake chewing or Ben and Klaus shakily holding onto each other in solidarity. 

His suspicion did not fade for that night, but they didn't give anything away.

He stared at them hard as he excused them and watched Allison closely as she left the room robotically, desperately trying to pretend.

When they filed away to their rooms Five stopped them in the hall with a hushed voice. "That got way out of hand there." He hissed.

Ben did look a little ashamed but his resolve hardened quickly. "I don't regret it. He deserved it."

Five sighed but looked at Ben and Klaus and at his other siblings and even Allison, still a little shook from her powers spiralling. "You're right." And that was a shock in itself. "We need to try and keep a low profile to stop too many changes to the timeline… but," he sighed again, as if the words exhausted him to say. "We all agreed. We're a family now. We can't let things happen the same way they did the first time, and that includes with dad. Otherwise what was the point of coming back? Ben, Allison, everyone, what we did tonight was stupid… but it was the right thing to do for our... brother." He looked around at the others, gaping at him in shock. 

"Wow," Klaus breathed, "he really does love us."

And the spell was broken. They all smiled. 

"That was beautiful little bro." Diego teased, clapping a hand on Five who frowned.

"I'm going to have to write that one down for my book this go around." Vanya hesitantly teased, but Luther just gave her a shove so she relaxed.

"I would do it again." Allison told them. "For you guys." She placed her hand out again. "Family?" 

"Family." 

They all agreed.

But they all knew Allison's haze had a time limit. 

They had a lot of acting to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)


	6. Mission Impossible? Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry it's taken so long but I lost all of my creative juices and hit a massive wall of not being to do ANYTHING, how fun.  
> Originally I hoped this would be one long chapter but it's been almost 2 weeks so I don't want to disappear off the face of the earth for much longer.   
> It's not great but I hope you like it anyway.

The Hargreeves had been seventeen the last time Reginald had sent them on a mission but it had gone terribly. The last time things hadn't gone awfully was before Ben had died. Once he was gone whatever tenuous links the group had seemed to shatter and they were all hit with the reality of their missions.

So it had been thirteen years. For Five it had been over thirty. 

They had used their powers as adults, of course they had, but their training more or less stopped as teenagers and from then on out with no missions coming in maybe they had fallen out of practice just a little. The intense physical training Reginald put them through in the three weeks following their return was gruelling but as Allison had rumoured he had forgotten about his new regime for Klaus and they hadn't been subject to more of his 'personal training' regimes yet. 

It was as if every time he brought it up his mind got a little foggy, but it was clearing up more and more each time. The way Reginald had upped the difficulty in their group training felt almost like punishment for that.

So exhausted was a kind word to describe how they felt that day when the alarm that pierced their nightmares for decades rang through the house. 

"Numbers one through six!" The detached voice of their father rang through the sound system around the house. "Hostage situation at an office downtown. We leave in 2 minutes. Number seven, your russian needs work." 

The seven were sat in the library. It had been self-study time until night training and they had all been desperately trying to remember how to do fractals after a decade of disuse with the help of an ever-growing annoyed Five until the bell rang. 

That had frozen all of them to their core.

It had been years since they'd heard the sound and it pierced through them like a knife. 

They knew at some point they would have to go on missions again. It's not like they could just say 'nah' to their dad and piss their days away pretending like nothing was wrong but even knowing it was coming couldn't prepare them for it. 

"We have to go." Allison finally said, standing from her seat but her hands were clenched with nerves. 

Klaus shook his head, "I don't want to." His voice sounded a little weak. "Maybe we don't have to."

Luther stood, and pulled Klaus up. "We have to." 

Klaus groaned.

"I would've paid good money to never head that sound again." Diego remarked as he pulled on his blazer to their stupid school uniform costume. 

Another alarm rang. 

"I believe you are expected downstairs within the next 30 seconds." Pogo said as he entered the room. 

"Yes Pogo." Came an unhappy chorus. He waited till they all stood before leaving them to follow him.

They all glanced back at Vanya. 

"Hey-" Five began but Vanya gave him a look that stopped him.

"It's fine. Even if I could control my powers I couldn't help without Dad realising we're different. I'll just stay here I guess." She discontently flipped open her book and slouched in the chair. "You guys should go. You know how he acted when we were late to his call." The others nodded, shuddering, remembering the punishments. "I'll see you soon. Stay safe." 

Reginald watched them all line up by the car with a cold, displeased glare. He looked at his pocket watch and snapped it shut. It seemed to echo in the garage and they all jumped a little. "Three minutes and fourteen seconds." He hissed. "I hope your free time is worth the lives of the people trapped in an office under attack." 

He filed them into their seats in silence and followed after. Sitting upright and staring straight ahead with a dark stare at Pogo driving the car. 

The thing was the six knew Reginald didn't care about the lives of the people needing saved. He cared about the fallout of their reputation as heroes if people died on their job. But they still felt chastised and ashamed.

He made it feel like it was their fault if people got hurt, but they were children, or adults, whatever, they had never chosen to be heroes, they had all given it up immediately after they could. Helping was great, saving peoples lives, they all knew, was incredible and important but their presence, if anything, encouraged people to act out worse in order for the attention. 

When they had stopped the first time the city had been a little shaky for a few weeks but within a year the police had it sorted, they had a new division to cover the crimes the heroes did and any attention seekers were discouraged from their act. 

Things had barely changed after they walked away and that was one of the worst hits when they grew up. 

They had spent their whole lives being forced to risk their lives like 'good little superheroes' just to bring fame and glory to Reginald and his school, to prove he was important and smart, and while people had admired them no one had cared about them. Then they grew up and left and no one cared. The only people it bothered were the crazed criminals desperate for their attention. 

Everyone apart from Allison had faded from public memory. The first few years contained the occasional, 'oh wow are you that one guy with the knives? Can I get an autograph?' And then people just stopped caring. 

Crime rates barely changed and arrest rates stayed the same and things didn't get worse or better and the remaining hero four were left with the reality that their whole childhood had been for nothing, Vanya was left with the knowledge that her siblings had put a worthless path before her and Ben had been forced to realise he had died on a mission that the police with guns could've handled just as well, if not better than an unstable fifteen year old boy with monsters trying to rip him apart.

So yeah, none of them were too thrilled about going on missions again.

Ben had said he would go on missions because people needed their help, and they did, he enjoyed the feeling he got from helping people, but they just needed help from someone who could help them, and sometimes six teenagers with bizarre and occasionally unreliable powers who could barely work together most missions weren't the best option.

"I'm expecting perfect efficiency." Reginald broke the silence as Pogo sped to the scene. "Zero victim casualties, if you can manage that much with your skill levels." He growled unpleasantly, looking at each of the six in front of him. "Ideally none of you will suffer major injuries. If you do you may leave through a private exit, the media would just love to see you dying. Instead, as always, you will be picked up separately and punished for your inevitable foolish actions once we return to the academy." 

He watched them all closely as they flinched at his tone. Injuries hadn't been uncommon on their missions, even unavoidable at times, but to Reginald every injury was simply proof of their lack or skills, technique and discipline and seemed to be a direct offence to him. Your personal training would suddenly get much, much worse in the weeks following after a special punishment Reginald would hand pick especially for you to learn your lesson. 

At least once each they had suffered one of those punishments at his hand.

"We are here Sir." Pogo spoke as he pulled the parking brake. 

"Wonderful." Klaus whispered out with a shake as he looked out the window at the crowd, the police and the media gathered outside the office building. Upon seeing the car the cameras and the crowd had all turned to them excitedly as if they were movie stars pulling up to a red carpet and the office hostages had faded out of existence.

"Eyes ahead. Focus on the job."

Reginald opened the door and elegantly slipped out of the car and with a worried shared glance between the six siblings they followed behind in perfect order like they had so many years before. 

As trained they walked ahead, leaving Reginald to slowly follow behind as they headed to their job, ignoring all the people screaming at them. 

"Breathe." Allison hummed under her breath as they approached the door and slipped under the police tape. 

"They'll know we're here now." Diego said, no one couldn't not notice those fans screaming.

Luther twisted his hands, "So we can't run. This is our job now."

Five looked up at the building, at least twenty floors high. Some of the windows were smashed, there was smoke near the top floor and distant screams from inside could be heard. He could jump in but the door was obviously blocked so Luther would have to-

Luther punched the door. He tried again. He grabbed the planter by the door and threw it at the doors and they smashed open, sending the seats blocking the entrance flying across the floor. 

He rolled his arms and awkwardly sniffed a little, "One punch would've done it when I was older. I haven't grown into my arms yet." He tried to explain with a red face.

They heard a shrill scream and glass shatter. From one of the top floors a window had shattered and a computer smashed into pieces on the ground. 

"Umbrella Academy!" Someone called from above. A figure with a megaphone leant out of the shattered window. "We knew you would make it. Meet your end at our hands, or everyone in here will die instead." 

The six remembered things like this. Many times similar situations had happened. This team thought destroying the umbrella academy would make them famous, and they were willing to kill to do it. Suddenly the figure pulled another beside him. They yelled and cried as the villain held them by their neck by the window. "She dies and you come face us." And he gave her a push.

The shriek of a person pushed to their death was a deafening sound and it was one that unfortunately they had heard before and one that had haunted them for their whole lives. 

She hurtled towards the ground faster than the wind and her cry tightened as she fell. The crowd screamed as they watched and the police shuffled around, pulling blankets from their cars as if that would help.

"Five!" No one knew who called his name but Five ran a step forward and vanished into the air and appeared a foot below the woman, approaching the fourth floor in her descent. He came at her from and angle and pushed her out of her straight trajectory, trying to grab her by the flailing arms as he did so, pushing her towards the others. Luther watched them coming and stepped back a few steps, opening his arms wide ready to take the full blow of the force, a number so high even Five would have to take a second to calculate it. And they slammed into him. He felt all the air in his body push out, his head felt like he had slammed it into an iron wall and his body immediately felt the agony of being hit. He was pushed back and fell into the brick wall around the car park, knocking it entirely through and flew another few feet back finally crumbling into a heap of three bodies flung over shattered bricks and covered in dust. 

"Five! Luther!" Allison cried as she ran through the hole in the wall to fall by their side. 

Luther groaned, feeling like his whole torso was shattered, checked he had caught the lady and Five and seeing them twitch he let out a relieved smile and let his head fall back on the bricks.

"That was stupid." Five groaned out, rubbing his arm where it had grazed some of the wall Luther's body had missed. He looked at the woman, pale, wide-eyed and with a wet face, tears still streaming in shock. "Are you ok?"

She couldn't answer but let out a loud sob and deflated into the ground.

Klaus hopped over the wall with a dirty blanket that had been lying in a crumpled heap in the car park when they arrived and tossed it over the lady. “Snuggle up in that, the paramedics are on their way.” He instructed her and she numbly nodded, gripping it closer to her body. Klaus was breathing deeply, his eyes were wide and his face was sweaty, he looked at Allison and Five, “They just set fire to the tenth floor.” 

And over the wall they could see new bright flames out of the shattered windows.

“Luther.” Allison objected as Five clambered to his feet. 

Five looked back at him and gave him a gentle nudge with his foot and he groaned. “He’s fine. He’s a big boy he can take a few hundred thousand, or millions of Newtons of impact force.” He winced and rubbed his left shoulder, sitting awkwardly high and his arm hanging loosely by his side. The lady’s right looked the same. Well, they would’ve also taken a hit when Luther caught them. They got off lucky.

“Five.” Klaus said warily looking directly at his arm. “You should wait-”

“I should the fuck.” He cut his brother off, glaring up at the building. “We’re here now and it’s only gotten worse. I’m not a kid, I'm not sitting this one out over a dislocated shoulder and a few broken bones. I had much worse to deal with by myself in the apocalypse.” He scrambled back over the wall as he yelled back at his siblings, who hastily followed behind.

Diego was already leading a few of the employees who had managed to hide on the lower floors out, and Ben was directing the firefighters, new on the scene, where to place their ladders for best access. 

“Lower two floors cleared, they blocked off the entrances to the others.” Diego debriefed as his missing siblings came up to him.

“Looks like we’re climbing in. Five, see if it’s clear on the way up.” Ben instructed as he shooed the firemen away for his ascent to begin.

“Right.” Five nodded at his brother and flickered away. The others rushed to follow Ben up and into the building. 

The fire must've spread down a few floors because they could smell the smoke of it when they got in, and the creaking of the building mixed with the muffled screams of the floors above didn't help much either. 

"How many do you think there are?" Allison asked as she looked around. It was a normal office building, one large, open room with boxed off desks and a few more private rooms down the other side. The lift doors had been spray painted over with a dripping X as if the attackers were having far too much fun as they shut down the building and they could see where the door had been jammed shut where Diego had tried to open it. 

"Probably at least one." Ben answered sarcastically.

"Is this the time?" Allison hissed back.

Diego stood between them, a hand on each. "There was enough to close down a whole building. They probably have guns and knives and maybe a flamethrower or two given the whole 'building burning down around us' situation. This is serious." He looked at Ben who sobered up and nodded. "People's lives are at risk and it's because of us, although they're on the more crazed side of our fan-base."

"Uhh, guys."

"Right." Allison nodded with Diego. "We have to check each floor in case they separated."

"Guys."

"What?" Ben turned to see Klaus who had drifted away from the group as they entered the room.

He froze.

Klaus had ended up near the desks, looking around for any victims and instead he had drifted straight into the arms of a woman in her forties with a wild grin and a gun pressed straight into his temples.

“If you’re done with your bickering,” She smirked, “Should we get to it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's not my finest work but let me know how you felt, constructive criticism welcome and everything.  
> Thanks for reading x

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published fic in years and even though it's not good I'm proud of it.  
> I put off TUA for ages but I finally watched it and loved it. I enjoyed season 2 but season 1 really got me and I just wanted them to be happy. I read so many family fics with this premise that I wanted to write my own version so sorry it's not exactly all up to date info.  
> Hope you enjoyed.


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